


Crossbones

by Solrika



Series: McGenji Week 2016 [7]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Body Horror, Gore, Haunting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-30
Updated: 2016-10-30
Packaged: 2018-08-27 21:25:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8417431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solrika/pseuds/Solrika
Summary: McGenji Week, Day 7, calls for something supernatural! Poor Jesse. He really doesn't get paid enough.





	

Jesse’s seen ghosts before joining Blackwatch. It’s hard not to, in the wake of the Crisis--every bombed-out town has a few shades haunting its edges, staring at passerby with empty eyes. Every now and then you hear tell of a mother who refuses to let go, following her children from foster home to foster home, or soldiers who guard a garrison that’s long since been burnt to the ground. 

The Shimada castle is crawling with them, though--shades pacing through the garden, eerie songs rising in the dead of night, figures keeping watch along the top wall. Every time Jesse’s scouting around Hanamura, he can’t help the shudder each time he walks past the castle. 

“Living guards are bad enough,” he complains in his reports back to base. “There’s no way we’re gettin’ in there without one a’ the family.” 

There’s whispers of discontent in the town, centering around the youngest heir. Jesse’s tried to set himself as honeytrap, but Genji Shimada keeps slipping through his fingers. Everyone’s seen him, and he’s just left, sorry, and why don’t you try down the street or at the arcade? Jesse gets glimpses of green hair, a sharp grin, expansive gestures. Only once have they come face to face, and Genji completely ignored him, much more interested in the shiba inu held in a little girl’s arms. 

By the time he’s recalled to base, Jesse feels failure sitting hot and heavy in the pit of his stomach. Commander Amari debriefs his squad quickly, almost as a courtesy, before sending them away. He hovers outside her door afterwards, trying to figure out if he should say something, if he needs to plead his case, before shrugging morosely and heading off to his quarters. If he’s done wrong, he wants to hear about it after a good night’s sleep.

The next few days pass without much incident. There’s a rumor that Commander Morrison is going to be visiting Commander Amari soon. There’s a chance they’ll all get to see the infamous Gabriel Reyes. 

Jesse shudders whenever this is mentioned, and his squadmates tease him for it. 

“Why d’ya wanna see another ghost?” he snaps. “’s not right. Dead should stay dead.”

“Not just another ghost,” Ivan sighs, rolling his eyes, “a poltergeist. Aren’t you curious? They’re so rare!”

“ _You’re_ th' one who went to college. I don’t got no curiosity no more, just a healthy sense'a self-preservation,” Jesse shoots back, and retreats from the rec room.

Commander Morrison never materializes on base, or if he does, no one sees him or hears about it--rare, in a place crawling with Blackwatch agents. Commander Amari leaves for a joint mission with Overwatch a few weeks later. Ivan mopes about never getting to see a poltergeist, and Jesse slaps him upside the head.

They learn about the retrieval mission after it happens--when Commander Amari’s plane lands, and she steps off with her long coat covered in blood, and Commander Morrison’s broad shoulders besides her. Jesse sees them by accident. He’d been sneaking out to see if behind the hangars was a good place for a smoke, and caught Amari’s shoulders dropping, Morrison slinging an arm around her, pulling her close. She covers her face with her hand, and he dips his head, saying something that make her shake her head and pull free. They walk back towards the main buildings together, and Jesse watches them go, turns back to the hulking mass of jet. Its gangplank is still down.

He’s never gonna know if it was fate or something else that pulls him to stroll past the techs performing post-flight checks as if he belongs there, if it’s fate or something else that leads him into the belly of the plane. 

It’s messy inside, dried blood everywhere, bits and pieces of medical equipment strewn every which way. Exhausted medics brush past him, ignoring him in favor of beds and showers. Jesse walks deeper, until he finds the gurney, the spent biofields, the guts looping their way in and out of a body.

“He didn’t make it,” someone says, and Jesse about jumps a foot in the air. Reaching for Peacemaker is second nature at this point, and before he knows it he’s got it aimed at the speaker.  

The man behind him doesn’t look all that impressed at the gun pointed at his face. Ignores it, in fact, walks up to and past Jesse to look down at the corpse. He’s a big man, tall as Jesse but twice as broad. “What’s your name, kid?” he asks, and at first Jesse isn’t sure if he’s talking to him or the body on the gurney.

“Jesse McCree,” Jesse says, and just in case, tacks on a, “Sir.” 

“You were on the Shimada recon missions. Complained about the ghosts.” 

“Yessir.” Jesse shifts on his feet. “Don’t recall I know you, though.”

“I help Morrison out now and then.” The man shrugs, as if that’s not special. Looks up at Jesse, tilts his head as if considering something. 

Jesse can’t help fidgeting under the scrutiny, and drops his eyes. Without meaning to, he finds himself looking at the corpse. Narrows his eyes, walks closer. The other man doesn’t stop him when Jesse reaches out and wipes away a bit of blood, revealing a shock of green hair.

“Shit,” gasps Jesse, and takes a shaky step back away from what remains of Genji Shimada. “What th’ fuckin’ hell _happened_ t’him?”

With a sigh, the other man leans against the gurney, pulling the sheet up to cover Genji’s face. “We knew there was tension between him and his brother, and were hoping to extract him to use as an informant. The brother was faster.” 

“Shit,” Jesse repeats, shivering. He can imagine someone from Deadlock pulling a betrayal like that but--Deadlock was never family, not the way Blackwatch is, not the way he remembers from living with his ma. 

“Yeah,” the other man agrees. 

They stay there for a moment, and then the big man claps Jesse on the shoulder with something that could almost be a smile. “Look out for yourself, kid. I like reading your reports. Be a shame if they were to stop coming.”

Jesse manages a nod, and then the man’s walking away. It’s just a trick of the light, Jesse knows, but it looks like he gets swallowed up by the brightness once he steps out of the shadow of the plane. 

~

Something wakes him. Jesse reaches for Peacekeeper, glances around, relaxes once he’s made sure the room is secure. It must be Chava and Lauren next door. “Quit diddlin’!” he shouts, grinning to himself at the scandalized squeals he gets back through the wall. 

He sees a flash of green right as he’s falling asleep.

~

The next few days pass without incident. Ivan still hasn’t seen a poltergeist, even though Commander Morrison seems to have taken up residence on base. The brass of Blackwatch convene, and Jesse can’t shake the feeling of tension in his shoulders. He takes to long hours in the shooting range, something driving him to chase the bullseye over and over. 

Once, as he’s putting on the ear protectors, he could swear someone says, “I don’t even know you.” When he pulls them off again, no one’s there. 

~

“God, why d’ya even wanna fuck at two am?” Jesse groans into the pillow. He raises himself onto an elbow, preparing a bellow, and freezes.

Genji Shimada is sitting on the end of Jesse’s bed, single eye gleaming in the darkness. 

“What. Th’. Fuck,” Jesse says, very intelligently.

Genji grins, teeth showing through his ruined lips. He raises his one intact arm, patting at Jesse’s thigh with bony, charred fingers. “Go back to sleep,” he croons, throat gaping open with each word, jaw swinging from its single hinge. 

“No thanks,” Jesse manages, scrambling away from those skeletal fingers. 

Genji shrugs. “Suit yourself.” He stands, swaying on his single foot--or what’s left of it, anyway--and walk-hops around the room, looking around as if he’s in a mildly amusing museum. 

Jesse watches Genji bend down to pick through his dirty laundry, and finally blurts out, “Seriously, what th’ _fuck_.”

Genji straightens, intestines threatening to spill at the movement. His shrug is more graceful than it should be, considering that his left clavicle is broken and mangled. “I honestly don’t know any more than you do. One moment I’m in horrible pain, and the next I’m following a _cowboy_ around a strange military base.” 

“Okay,” Jesse says. He looks from Genji to Peacekeeper, clutched in one hand. Looks back up, says, “We’re gonna go talk to Commander Amari.”

Genji shrugs again. “As you wish. I have no say in the matter, I suppose.”

Jesse stands, edging around Genji when he crosses the room to open the door. The Shimada eyes him the same way he’d looked at the laundry, with an air of detached amusement. 

Jesse stops in front of the door, and shoots Genji a glare. In the back of his mind, he’s still rooted stock-still with terror, but shock graciously allows pride to take precedence. “Stop lookin’ at me like I’m bein’ funny. I’m handlin’ this shit very responsibly, okay?” 

“Okay,” Genji replies, lips--or what’s left of them--quirking higher.

“I _am_ ,” Jesse insists, and leads them out into the hallway.

Genji looks worse in the light, and by the time they arrive at the doors to Commander Amari’s office, he’s started to leak blood. It disappears before it hits the ground, but it’s still enough to turn Jesse’s stomach. “Quit that, wouldya?” he snaps at Genji.

“I would if I could,” Genji snaps back, the first emotion other than vague amusement he’s shown so far, and something down the hall rattles. He pushes past Jesse, raps hard on the door. 

It’s Commander Morrison who answers. Jesse sketches a salute out of habit, and only then realizes that the man is staring down at Genji like he’s seen--well--like he’s seen a ghost.

“I found him in my bedroom, sir,” Jesse says, and then winces. Genji turns his head to look at him--turns his head too far, actually, but Jesse’s more concerned with the sharkish grin spreading over the Shimada’s face.

“Don’t,” Jesse warns. The grin just gets bigger. “Don’t!” 

“That’s what she said,” Genji singsongs.

“Oh my God, can you _not_ ,” Jesse groans, feeling hysterical giggles threatening to break loose, “you’re fuckin’ dead, you’re not allowed t’ make those jokes!” 

Commander Morrison massages his forehead. Turns away. Hollers, “Gabe!” like a man who’s just been presented with the macabre version of someone else’s misbehaving children. 

Something in the shadow of Commander Amari’s desk moves, and the man from the plane steps out, giving Commander Morrison an absent pat on the shoulder before walking _through_ him to stand in front of Jesse and Genji. 

“I think I need to sit down,” Jesse announces, and to his complete and utter embarrassment, proceeds to faint.

**Author's Note:**

> WITNESS. I've just created a new AU! And I like it enough to continue writing for it.
> 
> If you've got questions or want to see something for this written, leave a note in the comments or stop by my tumblr! (Link in profile.)


End file.
